Msg #1908 Prodigal Sons

Msg #1908 Prodigal Sons

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Luke 15 is a chapter about lost things recovered and the rejoicing that follows the recovery. The one lost sheep, the lost coin, and finally the lost son, all capture Christ's lesson about publicans for the Pharisees. The prodigal son parable has application to all believers, any one of us could end up prodigal. Application of this parable may fit a lost sinner coming to Christ but the prodigal son was at the beginning and end a son. It is more fitting to a believer who turns his back on his father and walks into the Vice of this world, tangles with the Vulture who has him feeding swine, does not consider the Victims of his departure, and ends up Vexing his righteous soul. We all know them, and most of us have repeated Peter's line, “I would never do anything like that!” Vise is a powerful thing, that is way we call it that. In the military they were labeled WWWDG for Wine, Women, Weed, Drugs, and Gambling. We can name a preacher that got locked in each vice. The purpose of this parable is to point out the Victory available to any fallen believer. When they “come to themselves” the Father is waiting and the rejoicing begins. I've known few to come back, but we should be first to rejoice with them when they do. Perhaps the larger application it a warning to the wise, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34), and “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Corinthians 10:12). Maintain your right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, lest you be prodigal, i.e. recklessly wasteful.